


I Hate to See Your Heart Break

by KatThirteen



Series: The Only Exception [1]
Category: Actor RPF, Dark Knight Rises (2012), Inception (2010) RPF
Genre: Break Up, Bromance to Romance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-26
Updated: 2013-06-26
Packaged: 2017-12-16 06:17:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/858814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatThirteen/pseuds/KatThirteen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joe misses a call from Tom.  Tom is heartbroken. Joe can’t deal.  Joe must remember that this is about Tom and not himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Hate to See Your Heart Break

**Author's Note:**

> First Tom/Joe RPF. Be gentle. This will hopefully be the start of a series. I own no one/nothing of mention here and there was no monetary gain from the production of this short work of extreme fiction. The actors mentioned here belong to themselves. I simply took things that exist and put them into a situation that does not exist. For my own amusement. And decided to share it with the Internet. Title belongs to Paramore, not myself.

Joe gently towels his hair as he walks through his apartment. He feels odd being back at home. He feels odd that he’s not aboard some sort of transportation and that he’s not moving or standing or even sitting in front of hundreds to thousands of people. The silence is deafening.

And then he hears it and cringes. That awful sound that his phone makes when he’s missed a call. He plucks it from his bedside table and checks the screen as he bends to get his favorite pair of cotton shorts out of the dryer.

Tom called. Which was normal. And he missed it. Which was unusual. Joe half-frowns and hits the call back button before pulling on the shorts. He’s never felt right talking to people on the phone while he’s naked.

The phone rings a few times, and Joe is about to hang up when it stops ringing. He opens the refrigerator door and looks at the mismatched beer and tries to decide on which one he would like.

The silence from the other end of the phone freaks him out and he shuts the refrigerator before speaking.

“Tom? Dude? Are you fucking with me right now?” he asks, and he hears a faint sob mixed with the smallest trace of a chuckle.

“Bleeding hell, Joe…Charlotte’s left me,” Tom manages to get out and Joe’s heart sinks down into his ass.

“She…what? Why?” Joe asks as he moves to sit on the couch. He pulls the blanket that is draped on the back down over his shoulders. His mind races with possibilities in the seconds of Tom’s silence.

“She said that she couldn’t get used to me being gone all of the time and that I don’t take all of the chances I get to see her and that I spend more time with you than-“ he starts, but Joe bolts upright.

“WHAT? That is ridiculous, completely…where are you?” Joe asks, and Tom sniffles before answering. 

“Oh, you know, I’m just traipsing about the upper east side..” Tom trails off, and Joe stands up, blanket falling to the floor near the couch.

“Are you seriously in New York right now?” he asks, voice a slightly higher pitch than normal.

“Ah, yeah. I landed a couple of hours ago. Was going to surprise you. Then Charlotte called,” Tom says, and Joe has to physically hold in his excitement.

“What would you have done if I’d been in Los Angeles?” Joe asks, and Tom laughs broken, but heartily.

“I’d have let myself in and had a nice wank on your bed. Now, are you going to let me up or not?” Tom says and Joe is laughing.

“Hm, I don’t know. You’re mighty disgusting. I don’t even remember why we are friends,” Joe says and Tom gets quiet.

“Tom?” Joe asks, hoping like hell he hadn’t actually offended the other man.

“Oh, fuck off…let me up!” Tom laughs and Joe lets out a sigh of relief, walking over to his front door. He presses the button to open the building for Tom and he can hear Tom opening the door on the other end of the phone. Butterflies fill his stomach as he unlocks his front door.

“It’s open for you, just let yourself in,” Joe says, hanging up his phone and bringing it back to his bedroom to put it on the charger.

 

Joe sits on the side of his bed and mentally prepares himself for Tom’s arrival. Tom is sad. Tom is hurt. This is about Tom. Tom.

Joe gets up and walks to his kitchen, opening the refrigerator to get a bottle of water. He downs the entire thing and clears his throat. He walks over to his recycle bins and throws the bottle in the one labeled ‘Plastic’.

Joe then realizes that he is still only in a pair of shorts. He scrambles out of the kitchen and into his living room just in time for his front door to swing open.

“Honey, I’m home!” Tom yells before his eyes land on Joe. Tom bursts out laughing.

“I’m over here wearing a sweater vest for you and you didn’t even have the decency to put on a shirt?” Tom says and then makes a tsk sound. Joe is mortified, sure, but he can’t help but laugh at that.

“Your sweater vest is charming. I do apologize for being underdressed for the occasion, as you’ve caught me off guard,” Joe says and Tom walks closer to him. Joe’s heart leaps into his throat and he has no time to prepare before Tom’s huge arms are wrapped around him. Joe has no choice but to wrap his own skinny ones around Tom’s broad shoulders. 

Tom immediately fills Joe’s senses. Not that he didn’t always, but this was different. Joe feels the hot tears on his neck before he hears the deep sob. His grip on Tom tightens.

“Tom…it’s going to be okay. I know that doesn’t mean a whole lot right now…but it will get better. We will take this a day at a time,” Joe says and Tom noses at Joe’s neck before lifting his head to look at Joe.

And that’s when Joe’s entire world crumbles. Tom’s eyes are swollen, how Joe didn’t notice before is beyond him. His usual gray-green eyes are almost black.

Tom has Joe by the shoulders and Joe brings his hands up to rest them on top of Tom’s. 

“Dude, I know it sucks. I’ve been there before. It feels like the end. Of everything. But the hurt that you’re feeling? That’s just your heart starting to heal itself. Before you know it, it won’t hurt at all anymore, because then it’s just a scar, just like this one,” Joe pauses, lifting his hand to run his thumb along Tom’s scarred eyebrow. Tom sniffles and hangs his head.

“I hate this, man. I hate this for you. Like, why can’t it just be like in the movies? But in reality, sometimes assholes find love, and sometimes the good guys don’t. It’s not fair,” Joe says, and Tom slowly raises his head back up.

“You think I’m a good guy?” Tom asks, eyes still dark.

“I know you’re a good guy. Hell, man. Do you remember when I got the call about Dan?” Joe asks, and Tom raises his head to fully look Joe in the eye. Joe never talks about that day. Tom just nods.

“What did you say to me when all I wanted to do was quit everything and hole up in my apartment in LA?” Joe asks, and Tom sniffles lightly.

“I told you that Dan would have wanted to you to carry on,” Tom says, and Joe smiles slightly and nods.

“Yes…and do you know what everyone else told me to do?” Joe asks, and Tom shrugs and shakes his head.

“They all wanted me to quit. They all criticized me for not grieving for long enough. And I put all that I was into my work instead of letting it take over me,” Joe says, and Tom’s eyes look away from Joe’s, drifting off to the city lights coming in through the balcony doors. 

“I’m not nearly as strong as you are,” Tom mumbles, and Joe breaks free of the embrace he didn’t realize they were in until it was broken.

“I don’t ever want to hear those words come out of your mouth again,” Joe says sternly, and Tom’s eyebrows knit together in confusion.

“You have gone through so much. You overcame addiction. And alcoholism. And stayed clean. Why? Remind me why you did all of those things,” Joe says, voice rising, and Tom takes a step back.

“I…I did it for Louis,” Tom says, a slight smile playing on his lips at the thought of his son.

“Yeah. You did. And that kid adores you. I’ve never seen another’s child’s eyes light up quite like that when they are with their dad. That’s saying something, Tom. Charlotte may have been a big part of your life, but she wasn’t the biggest. And she shouldn’t have expected to be,” Joe says, and Tom shakes his head.

“No, but I could have been a better man for her. I could have-“ Tom tries, but Joe cuts him off.

“No. You were the best man you could have been. Any moment you had free, you called her, you texted her, you Skyped with her. What else could you have done? You are way too good for this,” Joe says, exhausted from trying to make a point. Tom sighs and walks closer to Joe. He wraps him up in another hug and Joe realizes he’d had his fists balled up. He flattens his palms on Tom’s back and lets out a deep sigh.

“I’m sorry,” Joe whispers.

“Shhhh,” Tom says, laying his head on Joe’s shoulder. They stand in silence for a few minutes.

“It’s times like these when I wish I could have a drink,” Tom says, and Joe stiffens and tries to pull away.

“I’m only kidding, mate,” Tom says, pulling back and holding Joe at arm’s length. 

“I have ice cream,” Joe says, his eyes crinkling at the corners, which makes Tom smile in return.

“I can settle for ice cream,” Tom says. 

Joe walks into the kitchen and gets a pint of mint chocolate swirl and a spoon and returns to the living room, where Tom ditched his shoes and is lounging on the couch.

The two broken men stay up until the sun rises, sharing a spoon and a pint, talking until Tom passes out with sugar-sticky lips. Joe stops talking, realizing that Tom can’t hear him anymore and laughs, reaching to set the empty pint on the coffee table. Joe leans down and picks up the forgotten throw blanket from the floor and wraps it around them both. He thinks about Tom and how hurt he is, and that hurts Joe, deep down. Joe stops his mind from reeling. After all, this is about Tom. If Tom can settle into peacefulness after the day he’d had, so can Joe. His eyelashes flutter closed and his grip on Tom tightens. Yes, thinking can be done after a long nap.

**Author's Note:**

> If you all would like to see more of my work, please let me know. I am my own worst enemy when it comes to my writing, so I will need you to let me know if I should add more to AO3. I also accept constructive criticism. I promise to not get butthurt. :)
> 
> Thank you for reading/commenting!  
> -Kat13


End file.
